A Streetcar Named Desire (1940) AO3 Context Notes
Historical
1. The Industrial South
The America South depended on plantation agriculture and slavery in the pre-Civil War
The American Civil War (1861-65) was the war between the northern or Union states and
southern states. Although slavery had been abolished in 1865 at the end of the Civil War,
segregation was still legal
. Southern plantations still relied on cheap black labour. The northern states had a more
liberal attitude to integration following the Great Depression & the 2nd World War. This
created antagonism between north and south American which can still be seen today
From the 1920s through 1940s, industrialization continued to expand in the South, and the
old Southern class structure could not withstand its effects. The composition of the labour
force changed radically: more blacks, poor whites, immigrant stock, and women began
working than ever before
The aristocratic tradition, rooted in concepts of the social man as master and homebound
woman as mother and nurturer, gave way to a new social order, particularly after women
gained the constitutional right to vote in 1920 and as divorce, employment, and education
became more readily available to them
If the Southern sense of hierarchy appeared to remain, it was no more than the aristocrats
clinging to the last vestiges of obsolete power, for by the 1940s Southern wealth and
influence already had shifted to the industrialists
2. The French Quarter
The French Quarter, located in the downtown section of New Orleans (which became a city
in 1805), is its oldest neighbourhood and is sometimes referred to as "Vieux Carre," French
for "Old Square."
Recalls French immigrants who settled in the 17th and 18th century – made of brick houses,
narrow sidewalks, fountains etc.
This area was, and still is, distinguished by fashionable nightclubs, regional food, jazz music
At the time the play was set, the French Quarter was a melting pot of races and classes
(Blacks, Creoles, Cajuns, Mexicans, and Asians) – Polish Americans like Stanley only made up
a tiny percentage
3. Streetcar
Based on a real streetcar in New Orleans that carried the word ‘Desire’ – Williams was
struck by the names and believed they had some “symbolic bearing of broad nature”
Symbol of fate - For Williams, however, the streetcar’s destination, ‘Desire’, spoke more
than an undefined force of fate. This force clearly drives Blanche, her sexual passion and
desire overwhelms her at moments in the play, we see her clearly driven by forces more
powerful than her
Literary
1. The American Dream
National ethos of the US, set of ideals (Democracy, Rights, Liberty, Opportunity, and
Equality) in which freedom includes the opportunity for prosperity and success
An upward social mobility for the family and children, achieved through hard work in a
society with few barriers
The American Dream is rooted in the Declaration of Independence, which proclaims that "all
men are created equal" with the right to "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness"
Other examples of literature mentioning The American Dream; ‘An American Tragedy’
Theodore Dreiser, ‘Song of Solomon’ Toni Morrison, ‘The Great Gatsby’ F. Scott Fitzgerald
European governments, worried that their best young people would leave for America,
distributed posters to frighten them
